Oscilloscope

Applications for the QRP Enthusiast

By
James McClanahan, W4JBM
First Edition
Copyright 2015 © James McClanahan
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The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although
every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the
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“Trying to forget really doesn’t work. In fact, it’s pretty much the same as remembering.”
–Rebecca Stead

Treasure the small moments that are destined to become part of the past. –me…
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Safety
3. Equipment Used
4. Selecting an Oscilloscope
5. Construction Techniques
6. The Test Jig
7. Measuring Transmit Output Power
8. Measuring DC Input Power
9. Transmitter Keying Characteristics
10. Transmitter Harmonic Suppression
11. Evaluating RF Filters
12. Final Thoughts
Bonus Chapter 1: RF Proofing the Power Supply
Bonus Chapter 2: Another Dummy Antenna
1. Introduction
QRP continues to be one of the more active segments of the amateur radio hobby.
Different people are drawn to QRP for different reasons. Some like the low cost of QRP
gear. (Although, having said that, you can certainly spend a fair amount of money on top-
notch QRP gear.) Others like the ability to operate small, portable stations.
Personally, I have always found it rewarding to (literally) take a handful of parts costing a
few dollars and build equipment that allows me to communicate over hundreds or even
thousands of miles. From the number of kits, construction articles, and discussions related
to QRP projects, it seems that many share this enthusiasm.
The question, “Should I buy an oscilloscope?” or, even more frequently, “I just bought an
oscilloscope, what can I use it for?” is one that comes up frequently.
A few decades ago, the minimalist philosophy that often accompanies QRP construction
and experimentation would have been at odds with the expense and complexity often
associated with the oscilloscope—especially a digital storage oscilloscope. But this is a
different era! Many QRP enthusiasts want to better understand the details of how their
gear works and the availability of low-cost, high-performance oscilloscopes makes it
possible to have a view of the inner workings that was available only to those fortunate
enough to have access to a well-equipped lab not that long ago.
This booklet is focused on some basic applications of the oscilloscope with what I would
call a “minimalist” transmitter with the goal of showing how to a QRP transmitter can be
tested and characterized.
In addition to a radio and an oscilloscope, certain pieces of gear will be needed for some
of the tests. I will admit I struggled with a bit of “the chicken or the egg” issue in whether
to discuss the radio testing first so there was a better understanding of just how the
construction projects would be used or whether to discuss the construction projects first so
the testing descriptions could be more specific. I eventually settled on the later, but I do
suggest you study each project and the way that project is used for testing together before
you break out the soldering iron.
I have included a number of pictures along with schematics. Some of the schematics were
scanned from my lab book, so they aren’t as pretty as ones I sometimes put together using
schematic capture tools. My only excuse is that I extended the minimalist approach there
as well.
If you have built a QRP transmitter or two, you should have enough electronics and
project construction background for anything we will be discussing.
Also included at the end are two “bonus chapters” that QRP enthusiasts may find
interesting and useful.
Let’s get started!

73 de
Jim, W4JBM
“With a soldering iron in one hand, a schematic in the other, and a puzzled look on his
face…”

2. Safety
Safety is something we should always take into account as we build and experiment.
The voltages and currents we work with at the QRP levels are not typically lethal,
although the wrong combination at the wrong time can potentially produce fatal results.
But hot soldering irons, flying bits of wire as we trim leads, and blobs of molten solder all
can pose very serious safety hazards.
As you work on these projects, please be safe!
3. Equipment Used
Yogi Bera one said that, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In
practice there is.”
We will certainly touch on some theory in portions of this book, but ultimately the focus is
meant to be practical. Because of that, most of the experiments make use of gear that I
have available to me.
The oscilloscope used is a Rigol DS1102E 100 MHz digital oscilloscope. I have several
analog scopes available, but we will talk about why the Rigol and other digital storage
oscilloscopes (DSOs) are good choices for the QRP radio experimenter in a bit.
For the QRP transmitter, I choose the venerable Tuna Tin 2. I built this one from a kit over
a decade ago and it has seen its share of use. Actually my first “1000 miles per watt”
contact was made with this while listening on a restored vintage Radio Shack Realistic
DX-160 receiver. A pretty low-tech combination!
There is nothing magic about my selection of oscilloscope or transmitter. Both of these are
common, but it is likely that you can use a similar scope and whatever project you might
be working on and duplicate many of these results.

Just a note on some conventions I will use later on. The trace in the picture above is from
Channel 1 and is yellow. You can see that the Channel 1 Input connector is labeled with
yellow and that I have installed the yellow color code ring on the probe. Because of that, I
will use a yellow circle with the number 1 to indicate where Channel 1 is connected, a
blue circle with the number 2 to indicate where Channel 2 is connected, and a green circle
with the letter G to indicate the ground connection. These are shown in the legend below:
4. Selecting an Oscilloscope
In its simplest form, the oscilloscope (also called an o’scope or simply a scope) is a device
that allows you to display voltage (on the y-axis or vertical axis) with time (on the x-axis
or the horizontal axis). Most people are familiar with what a sine wave looks like when it
is drawn, but the oscilloscope actually gives you a visual representation of the wave form
from a real, live circuit.
Before I go any further, let me just say that I will gloss over certain details and nuances in
places. There are books filled with hundreds of pages on oscilloscope design,
functionality, and use. The same is true of QRP transmitters. My intent is to cover the
necessities. I have been using, studying, restoring, and repairing radio and electronics for
more than three decades but would certainly never claim to be an “expert”. It seems like I
still come up with an occasional “ah-ha” moment every few weeks, but that is part of what
keeps the hobby fun and interesting.
Originally I had intended to make use of both an analog scope and a DSO for several of
the measurements in this booklet. While the analog scope I used (a Tektronix 2336) was
certainly capable of many of the measurements, there were others that were much easier
using a digital scope. If you have an analog scope and are happy with it, you are not likely
to see much here that will change your mind.
Used and surplus analog scopes can often be had for bargain prices. I have a vintage
Simpson scope that I paid $5 for and I have seen many good scopes in the $50 to $150
range at hamfests. But recently I was able to pick up the Rigol DS1102E 100 MHz scope
off of Amazon for under $300.
The DSO has been around for several decades now, but DSOs with reasonable
performance were often beyond the price of most hobbyist. There were a few lower-price
DSOs available, but they often lacked the performance (primarily in the area of
bandwidth) needed by even the average hobbyist. The last decade has seen significant
changes, advancements, and cost reductions for DSOs. They now are around the same
price or even less than a comparable traditional analog scope.
As a parallel, think about what has happened to television. Decades ago most televisions
used CRTs. These days a variety of types of “flat screens” are available—in fact you have
to look a bit to find anything using a CRT these days. This same shift has taken place with
computer monitors.
Once the display became cheap, the manufacturers of DSOs could focus on other things
(like sampling rate, memory depth, or sample resolution).
Believe it or not, my original motivation for purchasing a DSO was that I had grown tired
of trying to get decent and consistent screen shots off my analog scopes. I had various jigs
and arrangements, but the results lacked the professionalism I wanted for certain reports,
articles, and books.
Virtually any modern scope is going to be dual trace. (This actually comes in handy when
looking at the keying waveform as we will discuss later.) With most DSOs, each trace can
be a different color making it much easier to interpret what is going on sometimes. Most
also have a math function that can do some cool and creative stuff down the road.
(Another thing we will discuss later.)
One of the most common questions I am asked by those looking at scopes is, “How much
bandwidth is enough?” For years I used a scope that was specified to work up to 20 MHz.
That seemed like plenty at the time, but when I started working with test equipment like
pulse generators and square wave generators I found that, “10 MHz isn’t always just 10
MHz.” Below are some diagrams of a 10 MHz square wave and what it would look like
on scopes of various bandwidths.

None of the projects in this book operate above the shortwaves, but you can see that
having extra bandwidth can be useful when you are looking at signals that are clipped or
squared (either deliberately or because of saturation or distortion).
I have Tektronix analog plug-ins for my Tek 7704A that can go all the way up to 150
MHz. The reality is that I often use other plug-ins that are good up to around 50 MHz and,
even with those, I usually have the bandwidth limiter on so they filter out most signal
components above 20 MHz.
But knowing when you need to crank up the bandwidth and actually having the tools that
let you do it is important.
For someone starting out today, I would say a 100 MHz scope is probably a good
investment—they are priced modestly above lower bandwidth scopes.
Just a quick bit of nostalgia… My dad was in the Navy and served as an electrician’s mate
during the Korean war. Growing up, I taught myself a lot about electricity and electronics
using a set of the Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS) manuals he
had. They were great books. (And are even available today—updated and for free if you
search online a bit.) The scope they taught you to use back then was the Navy OS-8C/U.
There are a few items I look for at every hamfest I go to and this is one of them. In three
decades I have only seen two: one that was pretty much an unrepairable wreck, neither
actually worked, and both were priced higher than the cost of my new Rigol.

And that dream scope of mine? Well, the OS-8C/U was specified with a top end frequency
of 2 MHz and the Rigol goes up to 100 MHz. Times have definitely changed.

5. Construction Techniques
Different people have different preferences when it comes to construction techniques.
Most projects can be built in a variety of ways, shapes, and sizes. Before I get to the test
jig I will be using to facilitate some of the measurements in this book, I will show a couple
of other projects I have built using different style enclosures and construction.
Small project boxes are available and reasonably priced. These can give a fairly
professional appearance to a project if desired. Below is a small enclosure containing an
ESR test adapter for my oscilloscope. The label was made using a computer and a laser
printer.

Of course there are the small tins that are often in vogue with the QRP crowd that can also
be used. These tend to result in compact construction and a rather whimsical appearance.
Below is a picture of a FOXX-3 QRP transceiver built into a mint tin.
Although it is not a mint tin, there is a bonus chapter at the end of the book describing a
dummy antenna built into a small, cylindrical tin.
I personally went through a stage where much of what I built was housed in loaf tins. I
enjoyed the retro appearance of this and since the tins were available at the local dollar
store the approach was very low in cost. I typically used a wooden base to finish out the
enclosure. Here is an example of a two-tone test generator constructed using this style.

I also do a number of projects in old-fashioned bread board style. I will usually cut a piece
of pine lumber to size and then mount a small circuit board or use something like copper
nails to allow point-to-point wiring. Below is an example of a simple circuit I built to
characterize some power supply design options.
The “tie points” for this are small copper nails you can purchase at the major hardware
stores. They actually take solder fairly well and the nail heads make them easy to clip test
leads on to.
I ultimately settled on building the three major items used for the applications discussed in
this book on a piece of perf board and then mounting that on a piece of wood. This is
shown below.
Like with the earlier power supply demo board, I used copper nails for the power input
and output.
You will see debates about the use of RCA jacks. They certainly have both advantages and
disadvantages whether it is for RF connections, DC power connections, or key
connections. (As does any other connect you might want to discuss.) I build a lot of
projects and RCA jacks are cheap. I have purchased bargain boxes with nearly a hundred
RCA plugs and jacks of various styles for a few dollars at hamfests. If you prefer to stick
with UHF jacks or BNC jacks for your project, that is fairly straight forward and won’t
adversely affect anything.
6. The Test Jig
There are typically several ways you could approach the various types of testing we are
going to discuss. There are also a number of different pieces of ancillary gear that you
may need depending on the approach you choose. I ended up building three key items on a
single perf board. Depending on your applications and what equipment you might already
have around the shack or workbench, you may want to take a different approach. You
could either add more to the “all-in-one” or you could build each component separately.
Let’s take a look at the test jig:

Starting in the lower left-hand corner, we have a dummy antenna.
If you have tinkered with radios for a while, you may be asking why I call this a dummy
antenna instead of using the more popular term “dummy load”? It has been pointed out to
me (and has also been mentioned in various books) that, while it is a dummy antenna, it is
in fact a real load. To be honest, I’m as likely to call it one as the other in a casual
conversation. But here I wanted to be as accurate as possible, so dummy antenna it is…
This is just a pair of 100 ohm resistors in parallel.
The resistors are rated two watts. Mounted a bit above the board and in the open, they can
handle a bit more power than this. Also, a lot of the testing we will do involves keying the
transmitter which reduces the “duty cycle” (the percentage of the time the transmitter is
actually transmitting as opposed to being idle).
In the upper left-hand corner is a voltage regulator that has a 1 ohm resistor in one leg.
With 15 volts or so in, this provides 12 volts out. With the resistor, you can also measure
current. Ohm’s Law tells us that current is voltage divided by resistance, so if we measure
the voltage across the 1 ohm resistor, it is the same “magnitude” as the current. That is, 1
volt means there is 1 amp flowing and 0.5 volts means there is 0.5 amps flowing.

I just brought this out to some copper nails that I clip alligator jumpers to. One important
thing to notice is that the “ground” for the regulated supply output is not the same as the
“ground” for the supply you feed this circuit with. We will see later how this simplifies
making DC input power measurements that will allow us to calculate the transmitter’s
efficiency. But be aware that “ground” isn’t always “ground”—and that is the case on the
input of this supply.
Finally, on the right is a keying circuit. I used a variable resistor with the timer so I could
adjust things. Using the word “Paris” as a standard, you can determine the duration of a
“dot” (in milliseconds) by dividing 1,200 by the desired WPM. The ARRL equipment
tests and reviews use a keying speed of 60 words per minute (WPM) which is 20
milliseconds. So a string of dots would be 20 milliseconds keyed, 20 milliseconds
unkeyed, and then repeat the cycle.
My CW skills top out at under 10 WMP. That would work out to be 120 milliseconds for a
dot length. With the variable resistor you can see on the back, I can vary the speed to be
whatever I want. This circuit uses a 555 timer and has a relay for isolation. It is powered
with the input voltage to the regulated supply section.

Here is the parts list.

I happened to have a small relay with a 5 volt coil rated at 200 ohms handy. To make it
operate properly with a supply that is around 15 volts (the input voltage to the regulated
supply section), I put a 470 ohm resistor in series with it. If you have one rated for the
voltage you are using, you will not need to do this.
Diode D1 protects the 555 IC from the reverse current spike generated by the collapsing
electromagnetic field of the relay.
R2, the variable resistor, is actually made up of two 40 KΩ sections. I shorted the center
(wiper) connections and then used the connections to each section on the same end to
make it give me up to 80 KΩ.
SW1, the Run/Stop switch shown in the pictures is not used for anything we will be doing.
For transceivers, it allows a way to test how long it takes to switch from receive mode to
transmit mode which can cause the first dot or dash sent at the beginning of a transmission
to be shortened slightly. We will not be using it for any of the tests in this booklet, so you
can leave it out if you like. It does add a bit of flexibility if you want to do other types of
testing down the road a bit.
All three sections are reasonably well isolated. The dummy antenna is not connected to
anything. The regulated supply floats on its own. The input to the regulated supply does
feed the keyer, but the keyer’s isolation relay gives the keyed output isolation. You could
also use a separate supply (or a 9 volt battery) for the keyer if desired.
Beyond this circuit, you will need various wires and jumpers to make the appropriate
connections. I used an audio cable I picked up for $1 at the dollar store to connect the
keyer and dummy antenna to the Tuna Tin. I used a new RCA plug to clip alligator clips
on for the power supply.
7. Measuring Transmit Output Power
So we have the QRP transmitter, a dummy antenna, and our oscilloscope. Let’s do our first
bit of testing!
What we are about to do could be done with a watt meter. If you have a good meter and
have calibrated it, you might get a reasonably close measurement. But the reality is that
many lower cost meters aren’t well calibrated at lower powers and the use of the
oscilloscope can get you a much more accurate measurement of output power than you
would typically otherwise achieve.
For most transmitters, the amount of RF output power they generate will depend on the
voltage they are fed. Let’s start off with the fairly universal “12 volts DC”. You can either
use the regulated output from the test jig or some other source. Also you need to key the
transmitter with either a real key or a shorting plug.
Make the following oscilloscope connections:

Channel 1 on the scope should be AC coupled and set for the appropriate probe divider
(probably divide by 10). Let’s talk about what we might measure with this connection. By
adjusting the Volts/Division and Time Base, you should be able to get a display similar to
the one shown below:

Here we see the RF waveform coming out of our transmitter and being terminated in the
dummy antenna. Along the bottom you can see the setting for the scope: Channel 1 is set
to 2 Volts per division and the Time Base is set to 50 nanoseconds per division.
I have also added to measurements to the display which are shown in the lower left below
the waveform. You can see that we have an RMS voltage of 5.11 volts and a frequency of
7.042 MHz. As a sanity check, the frequency is a reasonable match to the installed crystal.
If they do not match, I usually find that it is caused by a badly distorted waveform.
Occasionally you may see this change if you are doing something like dropping the input
voltage. In one case, I had a small transmitter where the crystal oscillator would
sometimes drop out at low voltages, but there was an issue in the final that would cause it
to oscillate on its own when this happened. Because I had tuned the final for output around
the particular band, the frequency was with 10% or so of the crystal frequency. That one
took me a while to figure out.
Knowing we have 5.11 volts RMS and we are feeding a 50 ohm dummy antenna, we can
calculate the RF power by squaring the voltage (5.11 multiplied by 5.11) and then dividing
by 50. This works out to be 522 milliwatts. (A table below will give more details of
measurements at different input voltages.)
But there are other useful things to measure. One is the “dropout voltage”. This is
basically the lowest voltage you can reliably operate the transmitter at. The term dropout
implies that the transmitter just stops transmitting when voltage falls below a certain level.
The reality is a bit more complex. The transmitter may drop out, but it may also begin to
distort (which can result in increased harmonic output) or lose frequency stability (such as
the situation I described above where the crystal oscillator dropped out but the final
amplifier stage kicked into oscillation when nothing was driving it).
Personally, there are few situations where I would operate below 6 volts, so if it tests okay
down to 5 volts I know I’ll be okay. Here is a table showing the results of the
measurements on my Tuna Tin 2:

You can see from this that while operating in the “normal” 12 volt to 13.8 volt range, you
are getting around 600 to 800 milliwatts out of the transmitter. Down at 6 volts you have
140 milliwatts out.
Rigs such as my small FOXX-3 transceiver might use a relay as a transmit/receive (T/R)
switch. These are going to be more sensitive to low voltages than a simple transmitter like
the Tuna Tin 2 because the relay will likely stop operating at some point preventing the rig
from operating properly. Also, you may encounter issues with the audio output (such as
motor boating) in simple transceivers before the transmitter section gives you problems.
On one of my small PIXIE transceivers, the audio motor boats at around 7 or 8 volts.
Going the opposite direction, you can see that at 15 volts, we have 936 milliwatts out—we
are getting close to a full watt! But I would hesitate to subject the transmitter to voltages
well over the design voltage.
You can also do a real “smoke test” to see how high you can go in voltage. If I am
documenting a project for others to build, I might do this. Usually if I do, I will key the
transmitter and begin ramping up the voltage in either a half volt or one volt increments. I
will leave the transmitter operating for one or two minutes continuously and then crank it
up to the next increment. This is one test where I would use a larger dummy antenna than
the one on the test jig just to make sure I didn’t generate too much heat along the way.
If you are going to do the “smoke test”, also make sure you wear safety glasses and try to
cover the transmitter with something like a large clear plastic food tub. Usually the final
transistor just opens up when it gets too hot. Occasionally a transistor will die with a small
wisp of smoke. I have never had it happen, but it is best to expect a small flame or even
the catastrophic failure (i.e., it blows apart) of a component. You should never crank the
voltage up above the rated voltages of any capacitors (or other components) in the circuit.
Also, if there are things like a T/R relay in a QRP transceiver, you may find that you burn
the relay coil open before you see the output transistor fail. There are ways to prevent this
(like adding a resistor in series with the coil), but generally it isn’t worth it if what you are
trying to determine is the maximum permissible operating voltage. It makes no sense to
say that the final transistor operates fine at 18 volts if the relay coil burned out back down
at 15 volts.
As I mentioned above, the Rigol scope can give me a Volts(RMS) reading on the screen.
That, along with measuring the resistance of the dummy antenna with an accurate ohm
meter, allows pretty accurate measurement of power
If you have a watt meter setting around that you use with your QRP rigs, it might be
interesting to compare its accuracy with this approach. Typically, with the possible
exception of meters you build and calibrate, you will find most watt meters aren’t
particularly accurate below one or two watts and that many don’t have decent marking on
the scale down this low anyway.
You can also make these measurements using an analog scope, you could measure the
peak-to-peak voltage. You would divide it by two (to get the peak voltage) and then divide
that by the square root of two (0.7071) to get the RMS voltage. The following picture
gives you a rough idea of the relationships between the various voltages and the actual
waveform:
I used a spreadsheet to do the power calculations, so setting it up to handle inputs of the
peak-to-peak voltage, then calculate the RMS voltage, and finally calculate the power to
the 50 ohm load would not be particularly difficult. You might lose a bit of accuracy if you
have to “eyeball” the peak-to-peak voltage instead of having the scope tell you the value,
but you can still usually get a better measurement than a low dollar wattmeter would yield.
8. Measuring DC Input Power
Those who have entered the hobby since the 1990s may not be aware that, back in the
“good old days”, input power was the most common method of measuring power both in
practice and in things like the FCC rules. It was fairly easy to measure input power with
reasonable accuracy using equipment most hams had. Many are surprised to find that
some of the early definitions of QRP back in the 1960s and 1970s were as high as 100
watts of input power.
In the 1970s there were several significant debates and differences of opinions when it
came to just what constituted QRP and how things should be measured. Different clubs
and organizations had different definitions and each organization typically even had some
dissent within its ranks on those definitions.
If you read old QPR club newsletters, you will find that this was a fairly spirited debate.
Finally, in 1979, QRP ARCI defined QRP as being 5 watts or less of output power.
Ultimately most other organizations and individuals moved towards this same definition.
(Although some did so grudgingly.)
But, having said that, the people who argued that input power should be measured did
have some valid points. Probably the best argument defining power in terms of input
power was that it provided an incentive to make your transmitter as efficient as possible.
The argument went that if you could use 100 watts of input power to get 75 watts of actual
RF, you should have an advantage (in QRP contests and such) over someone who used
100 watts of input power but could only produce 50 watts of actual RF.
But that aside, it is nice to know the efficiency of your transmitter if you do much
experimenting. If it is extremely inefficient you may have some type of design or
construction issue to track down. Also, transmitters that draw significant input power need
to be designed to handle the heat generated; if the power that is going into the transmitter
isn’t coming out as RF power, then it is most likely being turned into heat.
So how do you know what your input power is? In the last section we measured RF output
power, so now let’s measure DC input power.
Let me start by saying that strictly speaking, a scope is definitely overkill for this type of
measurement. A DC volt meter and DC milliamp meter can do the job. Back during the
debate mentioned earlier, the fact that you could easily measure input power with low-
cost, readily available equipment was pointed to as a major advantage. (Although
measuring RF output voltage into a known load using an RF probe isn’t particularly
difficult either. It does become a bit more challenging when you are actually feeding an
antenna that is not a 50 ohm, purely resistive load. And before solid state gear was the
norm, trying to get everything to 50 ohms was less common. By tuning the output section
of a single tube transmitter, you can often match a fairly wide range of antenna
impedances.) But using a scope will give us an excuse to try a few things and maybe learn
something new.
Below are the oscilloscope connections to measure DC power input using the circuit on
the test jig:

You have 12 volts output from the 7812 regulator and that feeds the transmitter. So, if
things are working, with Channel 1 connected as shown, you should see 12 volts DC.
Make sure Channel 1 coupling is set to DC and that you have the right probe division
factor programed in the scope.
Channel 2 is connected so that all of the current flowing “back” into the supply goes
through a 1 ohm resistor. With a current of 1 amp, you would see a 1 volt drop. With a
current of 0.5 amps, you would see a 0.5 volt drop. The only trick here is that the voltage
will be negative with respect to ground. To correct for this, most digital scopes will let you
“invert” a channel. So Channel 2 coupling should be set to DC and set to “invert”. Also
make sure you have the right division factor for the probe programmed in the scope.
If things are right, you should see the voltage on Channel 2 read something under a
hundred millivolts when the transmitter is keyed.
For the Tuna Tin 2, I read 69 millivolts on Channel 2 which equates to a current of 69
milliamps.
In our earlier testing we found that the Tuna Tin 2 gave us 603 milliwatts output at 12
volts. Now we can see that at 12 volts we have to “feed” the rig 69 milliamps of current.
The input power is the input voltage (12 volts) multiplied by the input current (69
milliamps) which yields 828 milliwatts.
So we put 828 milliwatts of DC power into the Tuna Tin 2 and get 603 milliwatts out.
That means we convert the power to RF with an efficiency of about 73% (603 milliwatts
divided by 828 milliwatts). Most simple QRP transmitters are going to be in the 60% to
75% efficiency range, so the Tuna Tin 2 is doing fairly well.
When you start measuring input power for transceivers or more advanced rigs, things may
not be as straight forward. For example, the FOXX-3 transceiver uses a T/R relay that
draws power on transmit. The power consumed by the relay would not normally be
considered when calculating transmitter efficiency. Also if there are things like dial lamps
or other components drawing current, they would typically not be considered. But, at the
same time, they do need to be taken into account when sizing the power supply’s current
rating or evaluating how the transceiver might drain a battery.
This kind of get at another reason there was a shift from using DC input power to RF
output power. When stand-alone transmitters were the norm it was fairly straight forward.
But for a more advanced rig you need to design the ability to measure input power to the
finals in from the start or it can be difficult to measure.
If you see drastically lower efficiency (less than 50%), take a careful look at the design
and the construction of your rig. Something may be amiss. If the input power gets up over
a watt and you aren’t seeing good efficiency, something in the rig is turning electrons in to
heat, is likely running hot, and may fail prematurely.
If you want to go a bit further with this and tinker with your scope a bit, look at the math
functions it offers. Most digital scopes have math functions that allow you to do things
like add, subtract, or multiply the two traces together. If you set up the math function to
multiply the two channels together, it should give you the input power directly.

9. Transmitter Keying Characteristics
Another area that we can look at with the scope is the keying characteristics of the
transmitter. To begin looking at things like this, we need some way to automate the keying
of the transmitter.
With analog scopes, the ability to do repetitive keying was typically an absolute
requirement because the typical non-storage scope could not easily capture a single “key
down” event. Having a repetitive keying source still makes our results a bit more
believable even with a modern digital scope.
If you connect the keyer portion of the test jig to the transmitter and connect the dummy
antenna, you should see a waveform that looks something like this across the dummy
antenna terminals.

Notice that the time base is set so that each of the major horizontal increments of the
graticule (a fancy name for the grid of squares on the screen) is 20 milliseconds. So this
shows me keying the transmitter on for a bit less than 50 milliseconds and then having it
off for roughly the same period. This works out to a keying speed of around 25 words per
minute.
It is easy to think of keying as turning the transmitter “on and off”. In fact, if the keyed
signals have rise times or fall times that are too short, we will typically have key “clicks”.
So let’s take a look at the rise time. The best way I found to do this is to leave Channel 1
connected to the dummy antenna like we did to measure output power and then connect
Channel 2 to the auto keyer circuit as shown below:
You may have trouble if you have not kept things isolated. I powered the keyer from a
separate power supply than the transmitter. Basically Channel 2 is now looking at the
voltage across the relay. Channel 2 should be set to DC coupling for this, although I’ll
admit I had mine set on AC coupling and didn’t notice it until later.
For best results, go to the Trigger menu and select your trigger source as Channel 2. There
will be other options and you should look for the one that lets you trigger on the rising
edge of Channel 2. (Usually it shows an up arrow in some shape or fashion.)
Now with both channels on, you should see both the RF output and the keying waveform
that is energizing the relay. If you expand the time base out, you should be able to zoom in
on the leading edge of the RF envelop and see something that looks similar to this:

You can see that Channel 2 (in blue) trigger’s things right at the center of the display as it
goes positive. The time base is set to 500 microseconds (or half a millisecond). There are a
number of observations we can make about this waveform.
The more you tinker with things, the more you will get used to what looks normal and
what is likely going on. But the first thing you might notice is that the yellow RF
waveform is delayed. Why? Operating the relay means that the magnetic field has to be
built up around the coil and that takes a bit of time.
I am going to make a bit of “educated guessing” here. (With educated being used as a
charitable adjective.) It looks like about 3/5ths of a division (300 microseconds) after the
keying waveform goes positive, something is happening. There is a little bit of “noise” or
something on the RF trace. This is likely the contacts of the relay operating. They may
bounce or exhibit other types of oddities as they fully and solidly close. It looks like as we
reach the end of the first division (500 microseconds after the keying pulse trigged the
scope), the transmitter is truly keyed.
We can clearly see the RF envelop building from the first division past the trigger point
out to a little over three divisions out. That represents a time of just over 1 millisecond. (I
would call it 1.2 milliseconds just from looking at it. Now might be a good time to start
playing with the cursor functions of your scope to make a more precise measurement of
the rise time of your own transmitter.)
Is that good or bad? Well, first I would say that nobody has ever complained about clicks
on my signal, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Many commercial rigs have rise times of
around 2 milliseconds. Some discussions say 5 milliseconds is better. I would say anything
between 1.5 up to a bit over 5 is probably fine, but you can develop your own feel or “ear”
for what you think sounds best.
All you should have to do to look at the fall time is leave your trigger on Channel 2, but
now trigger on the falling edge (instead of the rising edge) of the keying waveform. Here’s
what I saw when I did that.

I will admit that this kind of surprised me. We have a bit of a delay again. Once the
voltage is removed from the relay coil, it takes around 0.1 milliseconds for the magnetic
field to collapse and the relay to open. After that, the RF signal is pretty much dampened
out by a bit before 0.3 milliseconds.
So the fall time on my Tuna Tin 2 is around 0.2 milliseconds. That is shorter than I’d like.
But still, I’ve never had anyone say they hear key clicks.
One of my college professors had written a text book (that, by the way, was never
published but that he made us buy photocopied versions of his manuscript for his class)
and for things that would confuse most people but were obvious (or, maybe, also
confusing) to him, he would say something along the lines of, “Deriving the proof of that
is left as an exercise for the reader.” That makes it almost sound like some kind of gift is
being offered up.
If I had to make another “educated” guess, I would guess that the keyer I often use with
my QRP transmitters is “softening” the keying a bit.

After a bit of thought, it occurred to me that instead of building the auto keyer I could
have just taken a stereo plug, shorted out the right part, plugged it into my keyer, and my
keyer would have basically generated a continual stream of dots. (I could also have done
the same by just jumpering the right set of binding posts on the back of the paddle.)
That would actually characterize both the keyer and the transmitter as a pair. You would
need to draw the Channel 2 trigger signal from another source (probably the keying
transistor on the Tuna Tin 2 in this case), but other than that it should be fairly straight
forward.
And if you want to dig even deeper into the theory and math, one way that looking at a
“perfect” CW waveform (zero rise and fall time) is that it is an AM signal that is 100%
modulated by a square wave. There are significant portions of college-level text books that
discuss how that would be treated theoretically.
But, back to the Yogi Bera quote we started Chapter 3 with, this booklet is more about
practice than theory.

10. Transmitter Harmonic Suppression
A look at virtually any decent QRP transmitter design will show that the output is fed
through some type of filter. Harmonics, especially odd-numbered harmonics, tend to be
the biggest problem. While some designs may use a band pass filter, most simple
transmitters use simple low pass filters. (Band pass filters would be more useful for a
transceiver where keeping anything “out of band” from getting through to the receiver
front-end was desirable. But even a lot of simple transceiver designs still only use low
pass filters.)
Most digital scopes have a fairly elaborate “math mode” that lets you manipulate the
inputs from both channels in a number of ways. This can, in effect, create a third channel
which is calculated. Sometime this is called the “math channel” or you might see it
occasionally labeled as Channel M (similar to how we label Channel 1 and Channel 2).
One function commonly available is the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) function.
Early on, we talked about how an oscilloscope displays a waveform by showing voltage
(on the Y or vertical axis) across time (on the X or horizontal axis). Typically another
piece of test equipment called a Spectrum Analyzer is used to show the signal level (on
the vertical axis) against frequency (on the horizontal axis). But the use of the FFT math
function can let us turn our oscilloscope (which would normally be considered a “time
domain” instrument) into a makeshift spectrum analyzer (which would normally be
considered a “frequency domain” instrument).
So if we go back to measuring output power, connect the transmitter to the dummy
antenna, and key it up, we can look at the output signal just like we normally would on an
oscilloscope.

If we go into the math functions and turn on FFT for Channel 1, we can see this same
signal in the frequency domain.
The easiest way to think of what you are seeing here is to realize that “frequency” is along
the x-axis. So if you tuned your receiver up in frequency and plotted (for example) the
value the s-meter shows, you would come up with a similar plot.
The y-axis is in decibels (dB), so it is logarithmic, not linear. Being “10 dB down” means
being one-tenth of the power. We have 10 dB per division on the y-axis and 5 MHz per
division on the x-axis. So the “big hump” (using the technical term) we see is at the
fundamental transmitter frequency of 7.040 MHz. The next “hump” is at 14.080 MHz.
Notice that the third “hump”, which is at 21.120 MHz and is the third-harmonic, is the
harmonic with the most power. For a perfect square wave, only odd-numbered harmonics
exist. It is not uncommon for the third harmonic to be the harmonic with the most power.
(There is also a “big hump” at zero Hertz. This is common in spectrum analyzers and is
also an artifact of the FFT calculations. We can typically ignore it.)
Counting how far down the third harmonic is, we can see it is about 3.5 divisions down
which is around 35 dB.
Is that good or bad? Well, truth be told, it is bad…
In FCC Part 97, the requirements are that our signal keeps harmonics at 43 dB below the
fundamental signal. We are only 35 dB down.
So what does that mean and what do we do?
Well, there are a couple of options. First, let’s talk about the real world again. Most likely
you will be connecting to an antenna through some type of antenna tuner. In addition to
matching impedances, the tuner will typically provide a certain amount of filtering. The
reality is that when my Tuna Tin 2 is connected through a tuner to an antenna, the output
at the antenna will likely suppress harmonics below the 43 dB level.
Also, while I would never advocate knowingly violating the FCC requirements, there is a
practical aspect to this also. If I am operating at 12 volts and putting out 600 milliwatts at
7.040 MHz and have no additional filtering through a tuner or anything else, the harmonic
signal at 21.120 MHz will be 35 dB down which is about the same as a 0.19 milliwatt (or,
in other words, a 190 microwatt) transmitter. The chances of that causing any issue in the
real world are pretty insignificant.
Just because you are operating QRP doesn’t mean you get a “free pass” on harmonic
suppression, but I would be far more concerned about key clicks and such causing truly
noticeable problems than about this.
And finally, if you want the transmitter to stand on its own and be fully compliant with
Part 97 without depending on the tuner or anything, you could add some additional
filtering to the output. I operate on 40 meters a lot and actually have a band pass filter that
give any of my homebrew gear a bit more filtering than I might otherwise build in. I did
this more for the benefits to the receiver, but it does also help with harmonic suppression.
The Tuna Tin 2 makes use of a fairly simple low pass filter on the output. The schematic
of the filter is shown below:

So if we had not installed this filter, how would the output look? Well, we can roughly
measure things by connecting Channel 1 of the scope as shown below:

This is not a precise measurement because the output filter likely has some loading effect
on things even though we are looking at the signal that is “going in” instead of the signal
that is “coming out”. But at that point, here are the results for my rig:

You can see that the filter is truly doing its job. At the input, the third harmonic is only
about 10 dB below the signal. So the filter is taking it down about another 25 dB (to get to
the total 35 dB of third harmonic suppression).
In the same vein as the previous chapter, why not hook up your antenna tuner and take a
look at the output that actually reaches the antenna? (You can even put the dummy antenna
on the output of the tuner to do this.) Depending on the tuner, you may find that you easily
meet the 43 dB harmonic suppression requirement. Otherwise maybe you should consider
another stage of low pass filtering.
11. Evaluating RF Filters
So we just talked about the use of an external low pass filter to help with harmonic
suppression. This chapter does not use the Tuna Tin 2 and isn’t even related to one of the
ham bands available in the US.
For a while I operated a LowFER (Low Frequency Experimental Radio) beacon under the
provisions of FCC Part 15 down at a frequency of 172.945 kHz. That is way down below
the AM broadcast band. As part of my setup, I used the external low pass filter that is
shown below:

There are a couple of ways you could test this, but we are going to pick the easiest one to
start with. In the measurements options, there is a feature called “Max Hold”. Basically
this allows you to see both the current values as well as the maximum values there have
been since you reset the measurement.
So to measure the response of the filter, I turned on the FFT function along with Max
Hold. I tuned my Tektronix constant level RF source back and forth slowly and then set it
to around 500 kHz. Below are the results.
The light purple is the current FFT output and is being updated once or twice each second.
The darker purple shows the area where the top is the maximum level it has seen since I
started the test. (The bottom of this area also shows the minimum. I cannot think of
anything I have ever used that feature for, but it is there.)
The scale is 10 dB per division so I’m about 6 dB down at 500 kHz and was attenuating
around 40 dB down by the time I reached 750 kHz. This, along with another filter section,
was adequate for what I needed to do.
There actually is a way of doing this that is a bit more elegant. You can build a noise
source such as the one shown below:

This device will generate a reasonably constant level of noise over a portion of the RF
spectrum. This is an easier way than manually sweeping a signal. The Tektronix signal
generator has a constant output level, but for many other signal generators or noise
sources, remember that drastic changes in frequency may impact the signal output level.
With another signal source that is not specifically designed to offer a constant output, the
chances of the output level being the same a 100 kHz, 1 MHz, and 10 MHz are fairly slim.
Neither approach is “precise”, but using the FFT function with max hold and some type of
signal source will let you do a quick characterization of a filter.

12. Final Thoughts
Hopefully all of that made enough sense to get you started using your own scope on your
own QRP transmitter to characterize its performance. The use of the oscilloscope provides
a set of “eyes” that give us a unique view on the operation of the circuit.
I will admit that I have used the Tuna Tin 2 used for the demonstrations here for years and
still learned a lot about some of its actual performance characteristics in the process of
putting this booklet together. I had no idea the keying had such as short fall time. I did
know that the harmonic suppression on the Tuna Tin 2 was marginal in terms of the
current Part 97 requirements (they have become more strict since back with the TT2 was
originally designed), but had never actually measured it.
Good luck with your own testing and maybe I’ll see you on the air soon!

73 de
Jim, W4JBM

“With a soldering iron in one hand, a schematic in the other, and a puzzled look on his
face…”

Bonus Chapter 1: RF Proofing the Power Supply
When you are doing testing with equipment on the bench, it is always nice to be certain
that any problems you see are actually in the gear being tested and not in the test
equipment you are using. Actually a power supply can cause some interesting side effects
that you should at least be aware of. (And, maybe, decide to pro-actively prevent.)
As part of tinkering with QRP rigs, I enjoy building simple gear like direct conversion
(DC) receivers. One thing you often hear about DC receivers is that they are susceptible to
hum. The interesting thing people find is that often the radio works just fine when
powered from a battery but develops an issue with hum when a power supply is used.
Doug DeMaw (W1FB/SK) in his book “W1FB’s QRP Notebook” talks about building a
power supply for use with direct conversion receivers and makes some good points. I
partially rebuilt an old Radio Shack supply that I picked up for a few dollars at a hamfest
using his advice. While this is specific to something you see with DC receivers, having an
“RF Proof” supply around for various tests can be handy.
There are really two problems that can manifest themselves. The first is that RF (from the
DC receiver’s local oscillator) can get into the power supply. The second (and more
subtle) problem is what happens to that RF once it’s in the supply.
The secondary of the power supply’s transformer typically feeds a full-wave rectifier
bridge made up of four diodes. If RF reaches these diodes, they can act like a mixer. One
of the products (an “output”) of this “mixer” is the RF (that bled in from the DC receiver’s
oscillator) modulated by the rectified AC. This signal, though weak, may then be
“rebroadcasted” and heard on the nearby DC receiver.
So to simplify… The DC receiver’s oscillator generates a signal on the frequency we are
trying to listen to. This RF signal gets into the power supply. The rectifier bridge
modulates this RF signal and we now have a new, modulated RF signal. This signal is
radiated by the power supply (probably through a cord connected to the supply). The
modulated signal then enters the DC receiver’s front-end. The receiver now “hears” the
power supply’s hum.
Either that made a lot of sense or it totally confused you. Thankfully, the solution is pretty
straightforward whether you fully understand the cause or not…
I put a 0.01 µF capacitor (one of the line-safety capacitors rated for this type of use) across
the AC line as it enters the supply. This keeps RF from getting into the supply on the line
cord. (The line cord along with the house wiring it’s connected to can act like an antenna.)
I installed two inductors in the direct-current output lines. These came from a bargain
variety pack I got at Radio Shack and were probably around 10 µH or so. I put one in the
positive lead and one in the negative lead where they connected to the output terminals.
DeMaw used a ferrite core for this which should work as well. This keeps RF from
coming in the direct current side of the power supply.
Finally I placed 0.01 µF capacitors (rated 50 volts) across each of the diodes used in the
full wave rectifier on the secondary. If RF gets into the supply in spite of the earlier steps,
this will keep it from getting modulated.
After these three changes I can actually power my DC receivers with about three feet of
cord to connect them and have no noticeable hum. Some receivers do start to hum if
moved physically close to the power supply. I believe this may be because of 60 Hz
energy actually getting into the receivers. On some of the e-mail lists of builders I have
seen suggestions by others on what they do to further reduce any chance of interaction
between the power supply and what it is powering.
One common practice is to use twisted conductors. The advantage of this is that the
twisting will tend to cancel out noise induced in the wires. I almost always do this with
unshielded audio cables. For power cables, my personal experience has been that twisting
the conductors is great for convenience but doesn’t really make much difference
otherwise. These days I typically use a red and black coded “zip cord” for low current
power cords.
I have seen some suggest using shielded cable for the power supply. My personal
experience has been that this isn’t necessary. If you do use shielded cable for power
connections, I don’t recommend using just any piece of coax cable you happen to have
around. Cable television companies often do this (when there is some type of powered
device at the home) and find that unless the cable is designed for this type of service the
small wires in the braid (the shield) can become brittle over time. Things like satellite
dishes often carry power to the remote LNA (low-noise amplifier) with few problems. You
can also find small TV antenna amplifiers that are “line-powered” using a remote injector.
So power over coax isn’t a sure fire recipe for trouble. But for me… Well, once bitten,
twice shy.
If you have other power supplies in the shack you haven’t modified, you may need to turn
them off. The house wiring can act like an antenna and carry your RF into other supplies.
And the house wiring will also act as an antenna for the “re-modulated” signal from a
power supply.
As a side note, A lot of people talk about “60 Hz hum”. Actually sometime 60 Hz hum
itself wouldn’t be much trouble—many cheap headphones and speakers wouldn’t
reproduce it with much volume. The hum we usually hear is actually 120 Hz (with a lot of
harmonics). This is because a full-wave rectifier acts as a primitive frequency doubler. If
you don’t believe me (it didn’t seem intuitive to me when I first heard it), sketch a 60 Hz
wave and what a full wave rectifier output of this wave would look like. Count the times
the voltage hits the maximum and the number of times it hits the minimum. You’ll find
they double (and that the waveform is no longer a sine wave) after full wave rectification.

Bonus Chapter 2: Another Dummy Antenna
I wanted to share a bit about another project that was built several years ago that shows
there is room for creativity with even the simplest project. A transmitter expects to be
connected to an antenna when operating. Depending on the design, not having an antenna
can cause issues ranging things shutting down to the destruction of the final transistor and
potentially other components. Most modern transmitters are designed to operate into a
load of around 50 ohms.
I have always wanted a Heathkit Cantenna. In my early teens, I would thumb through the
Heathkit catalog thinking about just what I’d order for my perfect station if money wasn’t
an object. And, of course, the Cantenna was always a key part of the test equipment I’d
need in my dream station…
I used an Altoids tin to house my FOXX-3 QRP transceiver. Later I scrounged a can to
house the Tuna Tin 2 QRP transmitter. My wife happened to come across a cute little can
of cinnamon at the grocery story, brought it home, and asked, “Can’t you build some kind
of radio thing in this?”
I wasn’t sure what to do with it until I was in the middle of tuning up my Ten-Tec 1340. I
had a larger dummy load, but decided it was time for something smaller that could more
easily handle 5 watts for several minutes at a time. I also wanted to build a voltage divider
into the load that could allow me to feed my scope. (More about that in a bit.)
That was back around 2010 and I decided to build the world’s first Cantenna Jr.! It was
kind of a joke, but at the same time it was fun and practical.

The dummy antenna is fed with an RCA jack on the top. There is another jack on the back
that has the voltage divider output. The guts are built on a small piece of circuit board. I
used a Dremel tool to separate into islands.
I used four 10 ohm, 1 watt resistors and four 10 ohm, 1/2 watt resistors. The half watt
resistors were used in pairs to give me the 5 ohms I needed to get the divide-by-ten. Below
is the guts before I attached it to the bottom of the enclosure using super glue.

Putting the resistors in series without making an effort to keep the leads short does limit
the performance of this dummy antenna to frequencies under 30 MHz. I have one dummy
antenna that is more carefully constructed that will go up over 400 MHz with a better than
1.2:1 SWR.
The label was made for fun using Microsoft Visio and a laser printer. I glued it to the
enclosure and then sprayed it with a coat of Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Enamel. I’ve been
using this for about a decade now and it does not look much the worse for wear.
I did learn two lessons in the process. First, I would put one coat of clear enamel on the
label prior to gluing it to the tin if I was doing it over again. It’s very easy to get a bit of
glue on the front of the label when you’re gluing it on and that part of the label will turn a
slightly different color than the other parts. Secondly, make sure you use the minimum
amount of glue. If it starts bleeding around the edges, you’ve got too much. On my Tuna
Tin 2 I felt like I didn’t use enough because you can see when the paper is glued to the tin
and where it isn’t. The best solution isn’t to use more glue, but instead to use a slightly
heavier cardstock (instead of regular paper) for the label.
Now back to discuss the voltage divider I mentioned earlier. The oscilloscope I had at the
time could go up to 5 volts per division and has 8 divisions vertically. That is 40 volts
peak-to-peak. At 50 ohms, this would be a power of 4 watts. I wanted to be able to use the
o’scope to make measurements and look at waveforms for signals in the 5-10 watt range,
so I needed some type of voltage divider. The Cantenna Jr. is easier (for me) than using a
voltage divider probe because I can directly connect the scope to the dummy load and
transmitter. Making some provision for being able to connect a divide-by-10 probe across
the load (such as the test jig described earlier provide) would be another option.